Record: 2-8 - Home: 2-3 - Road: 0-5
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1983: Juan Gutierrez born. Only two NL relievers since 1998 have gone 0-6 or worse in a season: Brad Lidge in 2009, and Gutierrez in 2010. We got him, Chad Qualls and Chris Burke from the Astros for Joe Valverde, a deal that got worse the longer it went on. Gutierrez was okay in 2009, including an 8-for-8 stint as closer after Qualls was injured, but had a 5.16 ERA in 78 appearances thereafter. He is working his way back from a shoulder injury with the Royals organization, and started in Surprise a couple of weeks ago for their rookie ball affiliate. The first inning didn't exactly go well:
The Surprise Royals of the Arizona Rookie League surrendered 17 runs to the Brewers in the first inning Saturday in a 23-8 loss at Surprise Stadium. The Royals burned through three pitchers in the first inning, when the Brewers sent 22 batters to the plate. There were 12 hits, five walks, a hit batter, two errors and a balk. Right-hander Juan Gutierrez faced the first six hitters and allowed five runs on four hits.
- 1998: The Diamondbacks tied the game at eight, on a Karim Garcia RBI double with one out in the ninth, and won it on Danny Klassen's two-out single in the 11th innings, which scored Kelly Stinnett to give Arizona a 9-8 victory over Houston at Bank One Ballpark. The D-backs had a 7-1 lead going in to the sixth, but a Matt Williams error allowed the Astros to score five runs in the sixth off Andy Benes, all unearned, and they added two more off Clint Sodowsky to take the lead. Jay Bell had two of Arizona's 15 hits, driving in three runs; he, Stinnett and Travis Lee all homered.
- 2004: The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Jordan Norberto as an amateur free agent. Remember him? He was only 17 at the time, and was mostly a left-handed starter through the middle of 2008, when he was moved to the bullpen at South Bend. No denying his stuff, but harnessing it was always the problem for Norberto. Between 2009-10 in the minors, he threw 87.2 innings, striking out 127 batters...but also walking 59. He went to Oakland, with Brandon Allen as part of the trade for Brad Ziegler, so we'll maybe get to that deal later this month.
- 2006. This was the only other win the D-backs have had on this date, though today was the first time they had played on it in five years, due to the All-Star Game break. Arizona wasted little time, scoring eight off Chris Capuano by the end of the fourth. Luis Gonzalez had three hits and two RBI, while Conor Jackson homered twice to drive in three, as slots 1-5 went 11-for-22 with seven RBI and three HR. That was more than enough for Brandon Webb, who improved to 10-3 with seven shutout frames. He allowed six hits and two walks, striking out ten.